How should startups differentiate their messaging in categories where every competitor sounds alike?

Des Traynor · published Nov 15, 2023

A startup competing with an incumbent should never position itself as a new version of the incumbent's category, but should state explicitly how it is different and better

Describing yourself as 'a new type of inbox' puts you in the same category as the incumbent in the buyer's head

Scope: message must stay simple enough to understand

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Harry Stebbings · published Apr 17, 2024

Startups need more differentiation in how they tell their stories — being different is better.

There are so many data lake products that all sound the same and he has no idea what they actually do.

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Harry Stebbings · published Oct 10, 2026 · hedged

Being different is sometimes better than being better

Scope: "sometimes"

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Vickie Peng · published Apr 17, 2024

Differentiation only counts if it's expressed in the customer's voice — if a customer can't parrot back in one sentence why your product is better, you haven't done your job.

Being able to articulate your own differentiation internally is not the same as the customer being able to articulate it.

9:45 Customer must be able to repeat the differentiator